your brand matters - clearedge marketing...with social media, your brand visibility has greater...
TRANSCRIPT
Your Brand Matters:What Does Your Brand Say About You?
© 2011 ClearEdge Marketing
May 10, 2011
Presented by:
Leslie Vickrey, President & Founder
ClearEdge Marketing
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Our Agenda
What is a Brand?
What Does a Brand Involve?
Why is a Brand so Important?
The Reach of Your Brand in Today‟s Business Market
Measuring the Success of Your Brand
Lessons Learned
Lively Discussion!
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Poll Question 1
Which of the following would you say is the most
effective branding tool for businesses today?
Company website
Social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs, video)
Collateral (brochures, case studies, white papers)
People (testimonials, referrals, networking events)
Analyst relations (Gartner, Forrester, Aberdeen)
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We Asked Your Buyers!
“When I am in the market to solicit a service, the first place I
typically turn to are trusted colleagues and professional
organizations that have experience with the vendor… followed
by research into websites, blogs and social media.”
We asked and they responded!
CIO and VP of IT speak out…
“First would be sites that evaluate and report on products
and services – Gartner, Forrester, service specific user
groups… Second would be company website, third would be
colleagues.”
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What is a Brand?
It’s so much more
that just a logo…
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What is a Brand?
Simply stated…
A brand is the identity of a specific
product, service, business or person
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What is a Brand?
It is the personality that identifies a product, service, company or
person (name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or combination of them)
AND how it relates to key constituencies: customers, staff,
partners, investors, etc. -Wikipedia
The real power in branding today
lies in creating dynamic, meaningful
relationships with customers that
evolve over time.
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Poll Question 2
How would you rate your current brand?
Excellent: Our logo is recognizable, our message is consistent and we
have a great reputation in the marketplace
Average: People don‟t always recognize our name and logo and we have
to explain our value
Poor: The logo is outdated, we have no collateral that represents our
current positioning, employees are inconsistent with their messaging
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What Does a Brand Involve?
BRAND
STRATEGY
BRAND
IDENTITY
BRAND
MANAGEMENT
BRAND
EXPERIENCECompany
Customers
Market
Offerings &
Architecture
Category &
Position
Messaging
Name
Personality
Logo
Tagline
Design
System
Assets
Planning
Tools
Training &
Adoption
Monitoring &
Assessment
Personal
Interactions
Products &
Services
Environments
Print &
Online
PR & Events
Social Media
Evolution
Promise &
Experience
A brand is part of everything…
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Your Brand DNA
What is Your Brand DNA?
Style: What does your brand look like?
(logos, tagline, symbols, designs, ads,
etc.)
Differentiators: What makes your brand
unique and stand out from your
competitors?
Values: What does your brand stand for?
What do you support? What is your
culture?
Standards: Is your company consistently
delivering the same message and are you
delivering on your promises?
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Why is Your Brand Important?
Your brand is your essence… It creates a feeling, an
opinion that influences buyers‟ decisions
“Buyers make most decisions by relying on their two-second first
impressions based on stored memories, images and feelings…”
*Source: Malcolm Gladwell, Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking
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Why is Your Brand Important?
It touches every „driver of
choice‟ in strategic buying
decisions for businesses:
o Price
o Products / Services
o Experience
o Quality
Because we all have emotions,
no matter how disciplined the
buying process is, we use those
feelings in decision-making
Even in B2B… people make decisions based on emotions
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Love making a difference in the
world, living a great life
From her philanthropic efforts to the
inspirational and educational nature of
her shows to her book club and her
Live Your Best Life program, Oprah has
made of living through love and giving
back
Creating Your Essence
Creating the essence of a brand is no easy task…
It must permeate everything an organization strategically does
and supports and must be able to evolve over time
Happiness, friendly
From their tagline of “the real
thing” to the bubbles and the swoosh
of their logo to the images of Santa
Clause, polar bears, baseball and
family outings in ads, Coca-Cola plays
to the world's youth and young at
heart
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Your Brand is Your Reputation
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Why Apple?
Today is the Mac generation
Apple consistently increases its
broad appeal
It controls its messages very
carefully, which creates enormous
buzz and anticipation.
The company admits to making
mistakes, but is generally forgiven by
its customers
Examples of Brand Reputation
Apple vs. Microsoft
Source: Interbrands 2010 top 100 list of brands
Why NOT Microsoft?
Microsoft lacks the loyalty of it‟s
rivals…
Brand equity is missing and its
customers don't feel pride or
affection toward their PCs
Limited
Internal loyalty is somewhat
lacking
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Examples of Brand Reputation
How you react influences your brand image as well…
Source: Lightspeed survey and Consumer Reports, Dec 2009 and February 2010
Toyota: defective product was bad, BUT it was the failure to promptly
notify car owners that quickly tarnished the reputation
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Poll Question 3
How important are customer testimonials and
recommendations to you when making a strategic
purchasing decision?
Very Important: I do not make purchases unless others have reassured me it is
a high-quality product.
Somewhat Important: I am more likely to purchase if colleagues and friends
have given a good review.
Not very Important: I listen to what others have to say, but it rarely influences
my decision to purchase.
Not at all Important: I don‟t care about the name or how well the solution /
product has worked for others, it‟s about our personal needs.
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People are instrumental in making your brand a success…
Everyone is a potential brand ambassador
Employees
Recruiters
Consultants
Partners
Vendors
Friends & Family
Customers
But…if you don‟t have a defined, consistent and reliable brand,
you can create confusion among your ambassadors… AND
confusion becomes a brand liability
The Reach of Your Brand
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Brand Ambassadors
Raving fans can be your brand‟s biggest asset
If you‟ve created a strong brand, then your fans will promote
your brand:
Give your business great referrals
Spread positive word of mouth
Provide marketing legitimacy (back up your claims)
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Do You have Customers or Fans?
QUESTIONS?
Do they refer their contacts to your company?
Do they participate in testimonials and case studies that
demonstrate your company‟s value and capabilities?
Do they speak positively of your brand and become an
indirect yet highly effective component of your sales and
marketing strategy?
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Increasing Brand Awareness
With Social Media, your brand visibility has greater potential than
ever before
New tools for getting in front of more prospects and clients
Alternatives to traditional advertising routes
New ways to measure brand impact
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Social Media for Branding
LISTENING & LEARNING: To hear indirect, personal and uncensored
language what clients, consultants and candidates want and need from
your organization.
SHARING: To give subject matter experts ways to provide valuable
insights through creative mediums (video, blogs, photos, etc.) that
capture the attention of clients, consultants and candidates.
BOOSTING BRAND KNOWLEDGE: To positively influence brand
positioning by responding to questions and frustrations shared across
social media sites. www.hootsuite.com
EXPANDING: To dramatically increase business network of ambassadors.
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Assess
Define
EmbedReinforce
Measure
Building Your Brand
Put a Plan in
Place…
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Assess Your Brand
Assess Your BrandWhere are we?
Where do we want to be?
How do we get there?
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Assess Your Brand
• What emotions are behind customer purchases of your
products/services?
• Are there any negative aspects of your brand, if so, how can you fix
them?
• How is your brand positioned against the competition?
• What demographic is your brand appealing to?
• Which personality characteristics of this demographic do you
embrace?
• Does your branding effort take into account different cultural
aspects?
• Are you investing in your ongoing branding efforts through both
time and money?
Start with some questions…
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Define Your Brand
Interview employees at all levels as well as customers and prospects
and conduct a competitive analysis to ensure the message is aligned
and on target:
• What is your brand‟s vision?
• What are the good attributes of your brand (or company, or product,
or service)?
• What is unique about your company?
• What are the strength‟s of your company / employees?
• What makes your company stand out?
• What are the practical benefits associated with your brand?
• What feelings does your brand produce in customers?
Gather Information and Feedback
Internally and Externally…
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Embed Your Brand
Put Your Best Foot Forward Do your logo, go-to-market
message and outreach reflect
what you have defined?
Are your employees on board?
Does your culture reflect what
you have defined?
Is your collateral consistent in
design and message?
Are you leveraging social media
and other outlets to get the word
out?
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Reinforce Your Brand
Reinforce Your Brand Are your employees able to
deliver on what you defined?
Do you have raving fans?
Do all elements of your branding
strategy integrate with one
another?
Are these elements delivered
consistently?
Are you communicating
effectively and responding to the
marketplace quickly?
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Measure Your Brand
Measure Define metrics upfront, but be open to new
metrics
Set metrics that are qualitative and quantitative
Build a dashboard, not just a single ROI
calculation to see the in-process metrics
Design the dashboard to be relevant to your
business
Track what‟s valuable to you, not just what‟s
measurable
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We Asked Your Buyers!
“A company‟s brand is of high importance. A strong
„brand‟ gives a company leverage because it is associated
with highly effective key business outcomes – financial and
customer satisfaction.”
We asked and they responded!
CIO and VP of IT speak out!
“A great brand is about creating a great customer experience,
creating balance relative to service “hurdles” such as price or wait
time, but yet the outcome is what you expect or better than you
expect. The downside of course being when the value of the outcome
does not match expectations. If the customer goes away dissatisfied
too many times, this will dilute the brand.”
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We Asked Your Buyers!
“A 'brand name' is quite important to almost all decisions made by
the CIO. When we purchase a product or solicit a service, our goal
is to make correct decisions - a positive brand helps to give us the
confidence that we are making the right choice.”
We asked and they responded!
CIO and VP of IT speak out!
“Brand is why CIOs network and why vendors want to get close to
CIOs - it's so hard to get our attention. Having a brand validated by
others respected in the community is one major key to success.”
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We Asked Your Buyers!
“If we are not familiar with a brand, I think you will find the
decision process may be delayed until the due-diligence is
completed or the decision may be delayed to avoid a wrong
decision. Questions related to justifying the decision or even the
need for the product or service may arise.”
We asked and they responded!
CIO and VP of IT speak out!
“I think your 'brand' conversation is an interesting one - especially
since it can be traced all the way to the CIO him/herself. We all
have a 'brand' whether we realize it or not - it's our reputation.”
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TalonStrategic Brand Overhaul
From confusion in the marketplace to an award-winning
identity that supports continued expansion by:
Uniting the firm under one brand (from 3 to 1)
Directing attention to strengths, performance, talent and results
Modernizing their identity, image, name and logo
Simplifying their structure
Better reflecting who they were and where they were going
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TalonStrategic Brand Overhaul
As our expertise, capabilities and solutions continued to grow, we needed
a name that would speak to our strength, talent and solid performance in
the marketplace...” Dan Reynolds, Founder & CEO, Talon Professional Services
Website Business cards
Award
Winning
Brand
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CorptaxRefreshed Brand
From an outdated look and feel, conflicting messaging,
and inconsistent collateral to a forward-thinking and
innovative brand
A logo that is more representative of a software company
And icon that represents core solution
Messaging and branding standards that allow them to expand
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CorptaxRefreshed Brand
Refreshed Logo… Updated Collateral… New Website… Thought Leadership,
Targeted Communications… Electronic and Print Stationary… and more… All
enabling the client to: close the gap on communication, become a thought
leader in their industry and continue to grow and capture market share.
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Lessons Learned
Assess Your Brand: Are you happy with what your brand says
about you?
Define Your Brand: What value is your brand providing?
Embed Your Brand: Is your brand infused throughout all you do?
Reinforce Your Brand: Are you delivering what you promise?
Establish Goals and Metrics: Are you measuring what is valuable
to your organization?
Your BRAND is much more than a logo…
it’s your company’s REPUTATION
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Let’s Talk
Your Questions, Experiences & Thoughts.
Let’s Share & Learn.
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Thank You!
For More Insights, Contact Me AnytimeLeslie Vickrey, President of ClearEdge Marketing
Tel: 312.731.3149
E-mail: [email protected]
www.clearedgemarketing.com
www.twitter.com/lvickrey
www.twitter.com/clearedgemktg
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